Over the last few years there has been a substantial move to lotteries in which the participants select their own numbers; letters and whatever other indicia is used to play the lottery and a record is kept of their selection. If their selection matches the selection drawn in the lottery, whether in whole or in part, the participants are lottery winners. Examples include Lotario, Loto Quebec, New York State Lottery Keno, as well as many others.
In the type of lottery described above, the participants have to make a large number of selections. For instance, in Lotario, the participants make a selection of 6 numbers out of a possible 39 for a single ticket costing a dollar. If they play more than one ticket then they have to select 6 more numbers for each additional ticket costing an additional dollar per ticket. The requirement of making such a high number of selections presents a difficulty to the majority of the participants. Many people use the dates of special occasions such as birthdays of relatives and friends for a basis of selecting some of their numbers. Other paticipants develop complicated mathematical systems based on numbers that may have some significance to them. However, even people employing these methods find it difficult to make the required number of selections in a short period of time. The participants without any particular method of selecting numbers find it even more difficult and time consuming and can even find it to be a restraint against playing in any future lotteries.
Devices have been developed in the past for providing a predetermined selection for card games and the like. However, none of these prior art devices are satisfactory for making lottery selections for a number of reasons including among other things, their non-portability which makes them unusuable for on the spot lottery selections, their inability to provide for a thorough mixing of all of their contents, their open construction which easily permits the loss of their contents and the nonrandom selection of their contents.
The present invention provides a selector which answers the problem of selecting numbers or letters or any other indicia for lotteries and the like, without suffering from the drawbacks of conventional structures. The indicia selector of the present invention which provides for a totally random selection is portable to the extent that it is hand held and operated. It is a total-enclosed unit containing a plurality of indicia bearing members which are maintained within the unit. The unit itself consists of an opaque mixing chamber for mixing the indicia bearing members, a transparent deposit chamber separated from the mixing chamber and means for moving the indicia bearing members from the mixing chamber to the deposit chamber and back to the mixing chamber. The overall arrangement is one in which the indicia bearing members in the mixing chamber are hidden from view and mixable with one another for random movement to the deposit chamber where they are maintained, clearly apparent in the order in which they are moved to the deposit chamber until they are returned to the mixing chamber.
The selector of the present invention has, as mentioned above, particular application as a lottery number selector. The participant simply shakes the unit when all of the indicia bearing members, which may be in the form of numbered or lettered balls, are in the mixing chamber for a thorough mixing of the members and thereafter, moves the required number of members to the deposit chamber. The indicia on the members is then recorded on an appropriate chart in the order in which they appear in the deposit chamber for a very fast and simple lottery selection. After the selection has been made, all of the members are moved back to the mixing chamber for future selections.